The Campbell Academy Blog (43)

Moving the Goal Posts

I turned up on Sunday with the Mustangs to play football in North Nottingham, and as we were warming up on a boggy grass pitch, Callum pointed out to me that one of the goals had a crossbar that dipped about a foot in the middle. He said, "But that isn't fair", and I said, "It's entirely fair; it's the same for both teams. When you shoot from when you shoot into that direction, make sure you shoot lower than usual".

Moving the goalposts or changing the dynamics of your project are a strange thing, aren't they?

It's ok to decide to make the goals smaller or bigger, but it can affect everything depending on where you apply the principle.

When I was a very new graduate, after I came out of the hospital service, I started working in general practice in Ilkeston in Derbyshire and I set myself a target income of what I thought would be 'safe'.

I made the target income in the first year as an associate, in fact, partway through the year, and I then decided that I would not chase bigger and bigger targets but would try to choose to chase a job that was better and better for me.

I'm ashamed to say that I never stuck to that target income, but I did stick to the target income that I set a few years later, and I haven't really changed it ever since because moving that goalpost for me would fundamentally change many things.

I would then become someone who chases an income target instead of chasing other targets.

It's fine to change the walls in your living room; it's a different thing to alter your philosophy based on external stimuli and chasing shiny, bright objects.

Sometimes, just keeping the goal the same size and altering your approach is better than always trying to make the goal bigger.